Back in the day USAC gave you the number in how you finished in points the year before.. AJ and Mario seamed to have ther share of number ones..But I think when Mitch Smith ran USAC at the Grove his number stayed as 5?

THINGS TURN OUT BEST FOR THOSE OF US WHO MAKE THE BEST OF THE WAY THINGS TURN OUT.

For the top guys. I`m not sure how far back they went but usually the champ and maybe top ten went by points the season before. After that a lot of times they assigned numbers in the order that the entries came in. One year we got number 102 we weren`t 102nd in points the year before we just sent the entry stuff in really late. The year before that we were # 52 and the year before that #68. Kept the lettering guys busy,anyway...

Some years AJ was #14-he sure wasn`t ever 14th in points...

Mitch was on a Temp Permit when he Whipped USAC 3 times in 1971 I`d have to look at the photos they might have made him tape an X on behind his number if there was a USAC #5 car at those races.

The first nite Mitch ran the car it was not painted they just put it together on Wed.
USAC told them they needed a number so D. Hench put two strips of black elec. tape
on the tail thus no. 11, if you remember when they first started it, the motor sounded
like a machine gun til D**k Hench worked his Magic and the rest is History !!!!!

SK-11 wrote:The first nite Mitch ran the car it was not painted they just put it together on Wed.
USAC told them they needed a number so D. Hench put two strips of black elec. tape
on the tail thus no. 11, if you remember when they first started it, the motor sounded
like a machine gun til D**k Hench worked his Magic and the rest is History !!!!!